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Clearly, Not Everyone Is Getting Rich Off The Stock Market

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Well, the NY Fed was out today with its Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit for Q4 2017. Clearly, Americans are in a lot of debt. Take a look. Just a couple of quick hits from the report. Total U.S. household debt rose $193 billion in the 4th quarter, to a new all-time peak of $13.15 trillion. That's 17.9% above the most recent trough in Q2 2013. Broken down by segment, what do you suppose was the largest gain in percentage terms? Credit cards, with a 3.2% increase. In the picture above, the widening gap represented by the red arrows reflects the fact that non-housing debt is rising at a faster pace than housing debt. Here's what's troubling about that. Below is a picture of the stock market, as represented by the S&P 500 index, over that same period; from the most recent credit trough in Q2 2013 to the end of 2017. And thus, the title of this article. Over that period, the S&P 500 index rose by 75%; from roughly 1,600 to 2,800. Apparently, ho...
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The 5 Best ETFs For Investors In 2017

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As 2016 drew to a close, I was busily working both on encouraging millennials to make investing their New Year's Resolution, as well as on the ETF Monkey Focus series of articles. To-date, I have reviewed no less than 21 ETFs in this series, all of them with expense ratios of .19% or less. I hope to continue adding to this series on approximately a weekly basis until I have reviewed somewhere in the area of 100 ETFs.


Along the way, however, a couple of readers asked me to do a quick article suggesting some great ETFs to own going into 2017. I thought I would oblige, so spent a little time doing some research. Here is the resulting article.

Readers must be loving it. Although, as I write this, the article has only been online for 11 days, it is already my top-read article of the last year. The last year!

Thanks to every one of my readers!

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Authors Note: If you like my work, I would be profoundly grateful if you would take a minute to follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and/or Google+, as well as feature my work to friends, colleagues and/or relatives who may be interested in the subject matter. Growing one's readership base is critical to any author and I am no exception. Your support will enable me to continue my efforts.




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Clearly, Not Everyone Is Getting Rich Off The Stock Market

By -
Image
Well, the NY Fed was out today with its Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit for Q4 2017. Clearly, Americans are in a lot of debt. Take a look. Just a couple of quick hits from the report. Total U.S. household debt rose $193 billion in the 4th quarter, to a new all-time peak of $13.15 trillion. That's 17.9% above the most recent trough in Q2 2013. Broken down by segment, what do you suppose was the largest gain in percentage terms? Credit cards, with a 3.2% increase. In the picture above, the widening gap represented by the red arrows reflects the fact that non-housing debt is rising at a faster pace than housing debt. Here's what's troubling about that. Below is a picture of the stock market, as represented by the S&P 500 index, over that same period; from the most recent credit trough in Q2 2013 to the end of 2017. And thus, the title of this article. Over that period, the S&P 500 index rose by 75%; from roughly 1,600 to 2,800. Apparently, ho...
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3 Best International Total Market ETFs

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As I feature in this educational article from my personal blog, there are good reasons to include exposure to foreign, or international, markets in your portfolio. Two key reasons are potential for growth and diversification . In this article I wrote for Seeking Alpha, I review what I consider to be your 3 best choices in this sector. Enjoy! ----------- Authors Note: If you like my work, I would be profoundly grateful if you would take a minute to follow me on Twitter , Facebook , and/or Google+ , as well as feature my work to friends, colleagues and/or relatives who may be interested in the subject matter. Growing one's readership base is critical to any author and I am no exception. Your support will enable me to continue my efforts.
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Has Starbucks Lost Its Way?

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I couldn't help but notice that same-store-sales in the quarterly results announced today fell short of expectations. For me, this did not come as a total shock. ETF Monkey has loved Starbucks for years. In the course of my work travels, I frequented their locations in Seattle back in the days when they were small. They were amazing. The quality of everything they served was top-notch. I wanted to meet their HR person, because my experience was that virtually every employee went above and beyond your expectations. It was like they had enjoyed a little too much of their own product, but in a good way. Cheery, bubbly, upbeat. And then they got big. Very big.
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